'Niggardly' Offense

[monolith94]

That reminds me of my chemistry teacher in high school.

See, he taught a course called intro to bioethics which was basically just goof around talking about goofy stuff. He mentioned how he couldn't understand where bisexuals were coming from. I helped him understand. "A hole is a hole" I said. that was a fun class.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Caligastia
To think I actually worried that nobody here would be idiotic enough to side with the mother on this.

I'm neither siding nor opposing. I do, however, think that this teacher shows remarkably poor judgement. One has to wonder why she'd drdge up a word that really hasn't been used here for about a hundred years, knowing damn well it sounds like the most hated word in the English language. The fact that it is a pajorative in its own right should also have made her pause before using it.

I wouldn't go so far as firing her, but I'd scritinizer her more closely. If she's dumb enough to do something which would almost certainly start a tempest, who knows what other dumb things she might do.

[CyberGnu]

Imran,

Chegitz, according to the article she looked it up in a synonym dictionary. And quite frankly, if there is a word which is likely to be confused with an offensive word, shouldn't she be MORE motivated to teach it, to make sure that the world doesn't contain more idiots like that mother?

[chequita guevara]

I honestly don't believe school children are mature enough to learn a pajoritive term which sounds almost identical to another pajorative term. Kids are *******s.

[monolith94]

agree with chegitz, as I said earlier…

[Kaak]

One has to wonder why she'd drdge up a word that really hasn't been used here for about a hundred years

Umm...did you not read the part about that Washington guy resigning? that definately wasn't 100 years ago. But you are right, we should get rid of all the words that stupid people don't use every day. Then we wouldn't have to worry about miscommunication...

btw, i hate stupid people...

[chequita guevara]

How many people here have ever used the word niggardly in real life, and not just when arguing about the word? I've known the word for well almost twenty years. I've never seen a reason to use it in a sentence. Why bother? Other words are more to the point and I don't have to worry that someone will take it the wrong way. Why seek trouble over a silly little word?

Yeah, people shouldn't get upset over it. Guess what? Most people aren't etymologists! Guess what? She should have had better judgement.

[CyberGnu]

Most people aren't etymologists! Guess what? She should have had better judgement.

So school should only teach those words that 'most people' use? Well, since most people only use about 5% of the english vocabulary in ordinary speech, we can all quit school after second grade or so.

The only people who should have had better judgement is the mother, who after being told that it is a real word should have shut up, and the principal of the school, for not supporting his teacher 100%.

[chequita guevara]

There are 500,000 words in the English language, not including scientific and technical terms. Most people use 500 words, and some people with really big vocabularies might use as many as 1,500 (both significantly last than 5% of the English language).

Coming up with synonyms of stingy is pretty easy. And by the way, for everyone concerned, a synonym dictionary is called a thesaurus. Write that down. In my handy-dandy thesaurus that I keep in my home-office there are almost 50 words that have the same meaning. She chose the one that any reasonable person would have thought twice about.

[Kaak]

Other words are more to the point

i think shakespeare would roll over and die when he read that if he weren't already dead...

[Dis]

I say they fire all teachers because they may accidently one day use that word.

I feel so bad for teachers today. The school system has indeed completey fallen apart. Public schools offer little hope for someone to excell in this world.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Kaak

i think shakespeare would roll over and die when he read that if he weren't already dead...

Oh yeah, right, like Shakespeare's vocabulary range was sooooo great. Don't get me wrong, he' a fantastic writer, but his plays are confusing not because he sought out difficult language but because Elizibethans talked funny.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Lincoln
Another tempest in a teapot. My, my, What if the teacher had taught about a space man who wanted to fly to uranus but he was too niggardly with the fuel so he ended up in a black hole instead? Then we would have a problem...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Carver


Sonic, you are a total moron. People from Nigeria are Nigerians.

As usual you completely miss the point... Go buy yourself some humour

Actually I support GyberGnus proposal earlier, I´m getting damn tired of this PC-crap. Slap them silly I say, that´ll teach them

[CyberGnu]

Chegitz, I read somewhere that the english language contains 40.000 words, and the average person uses about 2.000.

If the part about the thesaurus was meant to be sarcastic, would you be so kind as to furnish the swedish translation? Or, without looking it up, any other language than english?

Dissident, I agree completely. (which creates havoc with your username, but I'm willing to overlook that part )

Kamrat, then we are two. Let's find some others and corner Kofi Annan in a dark alley somewhere.